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I think it’s fair to say that the last month has knocked many people’s confidence in the Britain they know and love.

From the brutal murder of Jo Cox, to some of the toxic images and messages distributed during the Referendum campaign, as well as the reports of hostility and even hate crimes against Europeans living and working in Britain since the announcement of the result, there’s a feeling that something has changed for the worse.

It would be a huge mistake to assume that the vast majority of people who voted to leave the EU were motivated by racism. People voted to leave for a whole number of reasons, only some of which were related to concerns about immigration.

In fact, there is a danger that such an assumption will actually push people from working-class communities who voted heavily for Brexit towards the politics of fear and hate at the very time we should be reaching out and helping them step away from such negativity.

Later this week, HopeNotHate will launch a campaign called#MoreInCommon to bring divided communities together and challenge the narratives of fear and hate.

The campaign will include:

– Holding over 100 meetings across the country, to develop plans to bring communities together around the #MoreInCommon theme
– Building solidarity with communities under attack and calling on the authorities to do more to defend them and demand that EU migrants have a right to stay in this country.